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When the English, who seem to have a national fascination with minced meat pies, combined mashed potatoes with minced meat, a truly remarkable dish was born. For over two hundred years, Shepherd's Pie has been made by cooking chopped up lamb or mutton mixed with gravy, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked until a crispy crust forms. When made with beef, this dish is traditionally called Cottage Pie.

Start by chopping up 1-1/2 lb. potatoes into rough 1-inch cubes for boiling. Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the potatoes and bring to a boil. Once the water boils, add the potatoes to the water and return the water to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium to keep the water at a simmer. Cook the potatoes until fully tender, about fifteen minutes.[IMG]

While, cooking the potatoes, prepare the vegetables. Use one medium carrot, a celery stalk, and a medium onion (a classic combination known as a mirepoix).[IMG]

Dice the carrot, celery, and onion and place in a bowl. Assemble the rest of the ingredients: 1 tablespoon flour, 1 teaspoon each of dried rosemary and dried thyme, 1 cup beef broth, and 1 pound of ground lamb or beef.[IMG]

When the potatoes are tender, remove them from the water into a large bowl, reserving 1/2 cup of the water. Mash the potatoes with 1 Tbs. butter, the 1/2 cup of reserved water. Add salt and ground white pepper to taste while mashing. I use white pepper in my mashed potatoes so black flecks of pepper are not visible in the finished product. Feel free to use the pepper of your choice.[IMG]

After the potatoes have been mashed, set them aside. Heat 3 Tbs. vegetable oil or clarified butter in a large pot over medium heat.[IMG]

Add the diced onion, carrot, and celery and stir until the vegetables are coated.[IMG]

Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occassionally, until tender, about fifteen minutes. This is a good time to preheat your oven to 400°F.[IMG]

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the ground meat. Use a wooden spoon (or the potato masher you used on the potatoes) to break the meat apart while cooking.[IMG]

Cook the ground meat while stirring until no longer pink, about five minutes.[IMG]

Tilt the pot and allow the excess fat to run to one corner. Spoon off the excess fat.[IMG]

Add 1 Tbs. flour to the mixture. Mix and cook for a couple minutes while stirring. The flour is added here to help thicken up the gravy that we'll prepare in this mixture. We cook it for a couple minutes during this step so there will not be a raw flour taste to our final dish.[IMG]

Add the beef stock, dried thyme, dried rosemary, and nutmeg. Cook while stirring until the liquid has thickened, about 5 minutes. While the gravy thickens, add salt and ground black pepper to taste.[IMG]

Cover meat mixture with the mashed potatoes and fluff the top of the potatoes with a fork. This will allow the bits of potato sticking up to brown and form a crispy crust. Instead of fluffing the potatoes, you can use the fork to carve patterns into the potatoes producing a dramatic crust.[IMG]

Cut 2 Tbs. of butter into small pieces and sprinkle over the top of the potatoes. Cover with a healthy amount of paprika. (Optionally, an ounce or two of finely grated cheese, like parmesan, can be used to top the potatoes.)[IMG]

Place the shepherd's pie into the oven onto a rack in the center of the oven. After thirty minutes, the potatoes should have formed the golden brown crust. Remove from the oven and allow to rest ten minutes before serving.[IMG]

For larger groups or potlucks, I double the portions and prepare exactly as above until the meat mixture is done cooking. Instead of transfering the meat to a baking pan, I put the potatoes into the pot to cover the meat mixture. (If I know that there will be many carb dishes at the meal, then I won't double the potato portion.) After fluffing the potatoes, I bake the whole pot for 30 minutes at 400°F.

I'm not familiar with US varieties of potato, and it was difficult to tell from the photograph - is the russet potato a waxy or floury potato? The mashed potatoes didn't look quite as smooth as we would use in Britain for a Shepherd's Pie - we would use quite a bit more butter, and milk rather than water, to give a thick, smooth purée.

The rest of the recipe looks fine to my British eye, although most cooks I know make Shepherd's (or Cottage) Pie from the remains of a roasted joint of beef, rather than raw meat. It's a way of using leftovers for most families, rather than a dish they create from scratch.

The sheppard's pie recipe is a good one and easy to fix. We have been cooking this for years. Practically the same recipe except I add a little celery and some frozen green peas. It really make it a good complete meal.

I'm not familiar with US varieties of potato, and it was difficult to tell from the photograph - is the russet potato a waxy or floury potato? The mashed potatoes didn't look quite as smooth as we would use in Britain for a Shepherd's Pie - we would use quite a bit more butter, and milk rather than water, to give a thick, smooth purée.

Russets are a starchy (floury) variety. Definitely the mashed potatoes could be made with more substantial ingredients. I don't usually both though because people (at least my guests) seem to focus more on the flavor of the meat and use the mashed potatoes for contrasting texture. Maybe even a palate cleanser - which is why I kept them simple for this particular dish. But there's probably no wrong way to make a shepherd's pie.

fwendy wrote:

The rest of the recipe looks fine to my British eye, although most cooks I know make Shepherd's (or Cottage) Pie from the remains of a roasted joint of beef, rather than raw meat. It's a way of using leftovers for most families, rather than a dish they create from scratch.

Ah, yes. I forgot to mention that Shepherd's Pie was originally intended (and for most of the world still is used) as a way to prepare leftovers in a palatable manner. If you've got flavorful meat leftovers, chop it up and toss it in!

Whenever I make beef stock, I always strip the leftover meat from the bones and make cottage pie with it. The meat is so tender from simmering for 8 hours and the beef stock is phenomenally good. I also use the rendered tallow that floats on top of the stock to saute the vegtables and the entire thing just ends up turning out intensely beefy and utterly delicious. Every time I've made it, I've increased the portion size by 50% and there are still no leftovers because everyone eats until they burst.